China’s crackdown on the underground church movement continues with the recent arrest of nine Christians while hundreds of armed police and special forces surrounded another church, causing members to flee.
Numerous reports detail that prominent leaders of the Early Rain Covenant Church in Sichuan province were arrested on Tuesday. The church’s leader, Li Yingqiang, was among the nine individuals taken into custody. His home and the church’s office were also raided during a coordinated sweep.
According to information released by China Aid, a persecution watchdog group, several church elders, preachers, deacons, and their family members were taken away. They have since been unreachable.
Although there is no indication as to why those members were detained or if they were charged, five of them were released on Wednesday.
According to China Aid, Yingqiang, church member Ye Fenghua, Elder Yan Hong, Preacher Wu Wuqing, and Deacon Zeng Qingtao are still in police custody and remain unreachable.
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Deacon Jia Xuewei and Preacher Dai Zhichao are listed as currently being on house arrest.
Early Rain Covenant Church was established in 2008 and has grown to about 500 members, becoming one of the larger house churches in China.
This is not the first time Chinese officials have cracked down on the church. In 2018, founder Wang Yi and more than 100 pastors were detained, Reuters reports. Yi was later sentenced to nine years in prison on subversion charges.
In a message shared through ChinaAid, Church members say this week’s arrest was “a coordinated action targeting its organizational structure and core members.”
A prayer letter from the Chengdu Early Rain Covenant Church cited the following scriptures from the Bible: “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. However, rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.” (1 Peter 4:12-14)
Destruction of the Yayang Christian Church
Meanwhile,1,000 miles away in Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province, authorities began demolishing Yayang Christian Church, according to ChinaAid.
Witnesses told the group that CCP authorities sent hundreds of armed police and special police forces to the church on Monday and completely encircled the building.
Christian residents living near the church were forcibly driven away, and individuals at the scene were ordered not to take photographs or record video.
Cranes and bulldozers were reportedly on site, which raised concerns that the church’s cross would be removed or the church would be demolished.
Dr. Bob Fu, President of ChinaAid, said in a statement that believers are facing “intimidation, isolation, and the imminent threat of violent enforcement.” He posted a video on X showing scaffolding erected around the church’s cross.
Update on Yayang Church:
Part of the church building is being destroyed forcefully by the CCP govt on January 6. pic.twitter.com/wnduGjespA
— Bob Fu(@BobFu4China) January 6, 2026
“The mobilization of hundreds of armed police and heavy demolition equipment against a peaceful Christian church is not law enforcement—it is state-sponsored religious persecution,” he said.
“Wenzhou, long known as ‘China’s Jerusalem,’ is once again under siege. History has shown repeatedly that no regime can extinguish faith through force. If the world remains silent at this critical moment, it will only embolden the CCP to destroy more churches and trample fundamental human dignity,” he added.
As CBN News reported, there are two main types of churches in China: registered and unregistered. Registered congregations, also known as Three-Self Churches, are government-approved because they’ve agreed to obey communist rules.
The other is the underground church. While that group of churches isn’t necessarily hidden or secret under the police state of the Chinese Communist Party, it operates outside government control.
For decades, the house churches have faced intense persecution.
Lately, the CCP has been cracking down on the spread of religion over the internet. In September, they issued a new Code of Conduct for Religious Clergy on the Internet, WSJ reports.
The code stipulates that preaching on the internet “may be done only through websites, applications, forums, etc. legally established by religious groups, religious schools, temples, monasteries, and churches that have obtained an ‘Internet Religious Information Services License.'” Another article of the code says that pastors “must not self-promote or use religious topics and content to attract attention and traffic.”
China’s president Xi Jinping also vowed to “implement strict law enforcement” and to advance the Sinicisation of religion in China. Sinicisation is a term, in this case, that means every facet of religious life incorporates the Chinese Communist Party’s ideology.
Fu, who escaped China in 1996, is calling the international community to pay closer attention to the matter and take action.
“These arrests are designed to decapitate spiritual leadership and intimidate the wider Christian community—but they will not succeed,” he wrote on X.
“Chinese believers are paying a tremendous price for their faith, yet their courage continues to inspire the global Church. At this critical moment, prayer must be matched with principled action. The United States should not reward repression with diplomatic normalcy. Any consideration of a presidential visit to Beijing must be conditioned on a demonstrable halt to religious persecution and the release of prisoners of conscience. Silence or symbolic engagement only deepens the suffering of the faithful,” Fu added.
